Kobe Bryant’s work ethic wasn’t a myth. He loved his sport, and only love can drive the insane amount of passion he possesses. He was more. Kobe learned Italian and Spanish to communicate better with teammates, studied referees’ tendencies, and dissected losses for days. He trained his left hand after one Finals weakness, worked with ballet coaches, and studied cheetahs for explosive movement. Mamba Mentality wasn’t just hard work. It was a passion for mastery. And recently, Kobe Bryant’s former teammate Julius Randle confirmed it.
Rewinding to December 2014. Jeremy Lin’s back-to-back 3-point performances drew sharp criticism from Kobe Bryant. The Harvard alum’s brief slump failed to meet the Black Mamba’s high standards. And that led to public frustration from the Lakers legend. Despite putting up solid numbers early in the Lakers’ season, averaging 11.1 points and 4.8 assists, Kobe Bryant expected more from Jeremy Lin and Nick Young.
On Pardon My Take, Julius Randle shared a workout story with Kobe: “I’ve never been to a workout where I go first off at 6:00, 5:00 in the morning and we do defense for 2 hours.” This defines the “Psycho Kobe” tag. He continued to share “Like, and he was so technical like like, “No, you can’t slide that way.” Like, you can’t move your feet.” This makes it clear that Kobe Bryant just had different standards set in place, ones that meant nothing less than perfection.
And the interesting part is that those standards didn’t just apply to him, but also to others around him. Julius Randle revisited the famous viral clip of Jeremy Lin and Nick Young. He said, “That’s why you saw that whole viral clip of him going like in on like Jeremy Lin and Nick Young when they were fighting, the whole practice clip where they were fighting.” Kobe Bryant didn’t step back from even fighting for precision if needed.
However, “It was mostly aimed at Jeremy Lin, to tell you the truth,” Young later disclosed. He even said, “People don’t know, Jeremy Lin actually cried in the locker room that day.” Imagine a fierce and full-grown athlete, brought to tears. Only a passionate scolding can do that, because letting it slide was never in Bryant’s dictionary. Even other players were shocked by the incident.
However, Young, on the other hand, was cool as a cucumber. He even said, “For sure. You know, at the time, Kobe only had one leg. He couldn’t do nothing with me at that time, you know? And that was my team. My team. This showed that not everybody was scared of Kobe Bryant, but nobody could deny their respect for him. Even when people joked around, there was never any doubt about who ran the show. It was the man who pursued greatness as if his life depended on it.
Julius Randle gets honest about bounce-back game vs OKC
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